核心问题
This question is ____ more difficult than that one.
A. rather B. quite C. very D. a little(河南省,02中考-40)
答案为D。能否选A呢？
词典解答
选项 D 的正确性是众所周知的(a little 用作形容词比较级的修饰语)，但选项 A 的正确性却被众多英语测试者所否认，因而成为我国英语测试上的一个误区。我们在上条已经证明 rather 也可用作形容词和副词比较级的修饰语。让我们再援引一个实例：
The dress was rather more expensive than I was expecting it would be, so I didn't buy it. 衣服比我预计的要贵不少，因此我没买。